OOH, NOEL... YOU DO GO ON

Happy-go-lucky Noel Gallagher is worried about the kids - apparently, he's afraid there isn't a band to replace Oasis. Sweetly, he didn't seem to realise that his Q Award was a recognition of his status as comfy old has-been - he seems to think it was applause from the cutting edge:

"What does it say about the state of music today that it's left to us to dominate these events? I'm 38. I shouldn't really be here. It's embarrassing. Where are all the 21-year-olds? Where's the next Liam Gallagher? Oasis have been going for 20 years and we shouldn't be getting all the awards today. There should be young bands coming through. There has been nothing to challenge Oasis at all."

Well... there is the Arctic Monkeys, and Hard-Fi, and Bloc Party and The Pipettes and the Franzies. And Ladytron, the Go-Team and... but you get our point. Okay, all of them have much more ambition and talent and are far more compelling than Oasis, so in that sense aren't challenging Oasis for the bland middle-ground crown. Hang on, though, Noel is going on again...

"Remember what it was like in 1994 when we came on the scene? It was a movement that swept the country. There has been nothing like that since and I think that is pretty bad. The album charts at the moment are really boring and bland."

Ah, he's turned into the 1994 version of Lydon, convinced that nothing has happened since his brief time living modishly, because he doesn't realise that the exciting new music is a party that he just isn't invited to - not surprisingly; he'd managed to ignore everything that was exciting about the early 1990s when he was making his low-calorie Lennonisms. But then arguing with Gallagher is almost as soul-sapping as listening to his music, and... we can feel it happening... we're...

music oasis noel gallagher